This article explores the interrelated roles of male parental investment (males' infant/child care and resource provisioning) and male-male competition (variation in male status) on the degree of monogamy or polygyny in a society. Marlowe argues that Degree of parental investment affects females' interest in resource-shopping versus gene-shopping. Also discussed is the idea that male-male competition affects males' inclination toward harem-defense or coercive polygyny. Particular attention is paid to variation in parental investment and male stratification across subsistence types.

The researchers examine associations between male status and various measures of reproductive success among foraging/non-foraging, and monogamous/polygynous societies in order to test the "egalitarian hypothesis" which predicts lower status effects in hunter-gatherer groups. Contrary to this hypothesis, they find that male social status is equally significantly associated with reproductive success in foraging and nonforaging societies. Additional support is found for the "mating effort" hypothesis, which predicts that male reproductive success will be more associated with fertility than offspring mortality in polygynous societies, leading the authors to make various suggestions regarding the evolutionary mechanisms at play.

This article examines variation in polygyny among foragers. Empirical analysis suggests that the level of male provisioning influences mating systems: higher male contribution to subsistence is associated with monogamy. The influences of pathogen stress, male-male competition, and male coercion are also considered.

This article explores the sexual division of labor among foragers, focusing on resource availability and constraints on women’s foraging activities. The authors conclude that “there is a greater division of foraging labor in more seasonal habitats where less gathering is possible and more extractive, tool-based foraging is required” (191).

Evolutionary anthropologists have long emphasized the puzzle of short inter-birth intervals, extended childhoods, and long post-reproductive lives of humans, in particular the problem it poses for raising children. While there is agreement that mothers receive assistance from kin to offset the high costs of raising children, opinion is equivocal as to which kin help and to what extent they help. Here the authors review 45 studies from historical and contemporary natural fertility populations to assess the effects of various types of kin on child survival rates.

This book investigates a broad hypothesis linking social solidarity and initiation ceremonies. The author proposes that “the degree of solidarity of a given social system determines the degree to which status transitions within it will be dramatized” (1). A variety of operational hypotheses are supported for both male and female initiation ceremonies.

This study provides the first tests of the relationships between population-level adolescent fertility rates and mortality risk at two different time points. The hypotheses are based in life-history theory, which predicts that human reproductive choices are shaped by mortality. The authors find that reproductive strategies are significantly predicted by both early (between ages 1-7) risks of mortality and current cues of mortality risk.

This article examines the relationship between HIV/AIDS and several parameters of a nation’s demography, including income, mortality, labor, fertility, and homicide rates. Associations were supported by statistical tests. Regional differences are considered; Europe and the Muslim area had lower level of women’s HIV/AIDS infection. Four cultural adaptations to combat STDs are discussed.

This manuscript examines the relationship between contribution to subsistence and residence localization. This relationship is explored separately for both genders in both agricultural and non-agricultural societies. Results indicate that the relationship is positive for males in non-agricultural societies and negative for females in agricultural societies. Tests on community size, marginality, and endogamy are also conducted.

This paper investigates ritual related to the female reproductive cycle. The author examines two types of ritual female pollution-avoidance ritual. meant to differentiate sex roles in a society, and male ritual (including couvade) associated with the female reproductive cycle, meant to minimize sex differentiation. Empirical analysis reveals several societal characteristics associated with each of these two types of ritual, suggesting that ritual can be used to encourage sex role rigidity or flexibility.